When Karin woke next, Suigetsu was sitting cross-legged on the floor next to where she was lying on the bed. She tried to sit up, but found that she wasn't able to. She started panicking until his voice floated to her.

"Stay completely still. You are in absolutely no danger, but I will be if you don't keep still."

She looked over at him. His eyes were closed and his morphed face was serene, but when she looked down at his hands, her eyes widened in horror.

"Before you start screaming and freaking out, let me tell you. You lost a lot of blood. Right now, I'm making replacement blood for you."

She didn't want to continue looking, but her eyes became riveted to his hands. Blood was spiralling out of his palms into the air, forming a pulsating sphere of blood. As she watched, horrifyingly fascinated, the sphere lifted up towards her and disappeared into her stomach. She gasped; the feeling was indescribable.

She closed her eyes, trying to return her breathing to normal. When she opened them, Suigetsu was lying on his back on the floor. She tried to lift herself up and managed it this time, raising herself slowly off the bed and moving onto the floor to sit next to him. He opened his eyes slightly and peered up at her.

"You alright?"

She tried to talk properly, but whispering was she could manage.

"Yes. Thank you."

He nodded, eyes closed. She lifted her hand to her neck, tracing the thin line on the side.

"What did you do?"

He opened his eyes, lifting his hand to touch her neck.

"If I was strong enough, I'd show you. Right now, I'm so drained."

"Do you want me to do anything?"

He eyed her as he struggled to sit up.

"Keep safe. I don't want to almost die again."

He looked away. She sat there as his words sunk in.

"You almost died?"

He glanced at her and sighed.

"Yes. I suppose you didn't hear me yelling when you passed out from blood loss."

A haze of memories played in her head, but she couldn't recognise any of them.

"No. What did you say?"

He turned so he was sitting in front of her.

"I said, don't leave me. I said, I came back for you. I said..."

He moved closer with each sentence until they were almost touching lips. She tried to control her breathing.

"I. Love. You."

Her eyes widened as he took the plunge, capturing her lips with his, holding her tight against him. She lifted her arms up around his neck, pulling him in and he fell, landing on the floor next to her. He knew she was still weak from her injury, and he wasn't much better. He wrapped his arms around her and lifted, shifting them both onto the bed. He caressed her cheek as he kissed her gently.

"You won't be so happy with me when you find out what I've been doing while you've been asleep."

It killed the mood. She pushed him back, looking him in the eye.

"What have you done?" She was still whispering.

"I've been packing. I'm not going to allow you to stay here."

As expected, she hit him, rolling him off her and getting off the bed to get away. He followed her out of the room as she stomped into the living area. She swung around and he blocked.

"You can't make up my decisions for me. I make my own way. You came back for me, you say. I didn't go anywhere to find you."

Her tirade was made less scary by the fact that she was still whispering. When none of her words made an impact, she started whispering more ferociously and he tried to contain his amusement.

"I didn't try to find you after you left. I think that says everything perfectly."

She was pressed up against the wall quicker than she could think. Suigetsu levelled his face with hers, expression mild.

"I would quit while I'm ahead if I were you. The only reason I'm deciding to move you is to keep you safe. Obviously you need it. You've been stabbed and had your throat cut. If that doesn't say something about the locals around here then I don't know what does."

She kept quiet, staring at him. He sighed.

"I have a place, you know. It's high in the mountains, surrounded by water. Nobody knows it's there."

She looked a bit dubious. He grinned at her expression.

"I've never had any doorknockers. Besides, there's a cottage down the mountain near a village. That's where I pretend to live. You can't get any safer than that."

She was almost won over, he could tell. One last little push.

"Add to that, it is nowhere near Konoha."

"Done. I'm coming with you."

He smiled and kissed her gently.

"I knew you'd come around."

She rolled her eyes.

"Whatever. When do we leave?"

"Well, since it's about two in the morning, and I need to sleep after healing you... We'll leave at daybreak."

She nodded slightly.

"Anything I need to get?"

He shook his head, moving away from the wall so she was free.

"Nope. I've organised everything. All you have to do is build your energy."

She nodded wordlessly, and took a step forward. He quickly stepped in and caught her.

"Oops. I don't think you're supposed to be awake. You're still very weak."

She didn't have a chance to tell him to leave her alone because he lifted her up into his arms and carried her into her bedroom, placing her gently down on the bed in front of him. He crossed his arms and looked down at her.

"I hope you realise that someday, I'm going to be doing that, and it will be for real."

She couldn't hide her blush from him and he smirked. He climbed into the bed on the other side of her and curled himself protectively around her.

"But don't worry. It won't be for a while. It'll take at least a week for me to reach my full potential again, and you need to heal completely. Add to that, we need to leave here, so don't expect anything anytime soon."

She blushed harder.

"I can assure you that I wasn't thinking about any of that."

He chuckled quietly.

"Go to sleep Karin."

All through these proceedings, from before Karin even woke up, Suigetsu's clone was sitting on the roof, coloured eyes glittering in the darkness.